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Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviewed the Virtual Desktop Delivery of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Part V reviewed the integration with XenApp for application delivery to the virtual desktops. Part VI covers User Personalization with Citrix User Profile Manager. This is the third section from Dan's Pilot Implementation Guide.
This embedded presentation covers the "Personalization" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here
. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviewed the Virtual Desktop Delivery of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Now in Part V we review the integration with XenApp for application delivery to the virtual desktops. This is the second section from Dan's Pilot Implementation Guide.
This embedded presentation covers the "Application Delivery" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviews the first section of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Dan goes through each step of configuring a pilot from start to finish.
This first embedded presentation covers the "Virtual Desktop Delivery" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviews an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. This presentation is based on the "XenDesktop Pilot Reference Architecture" document by Dan Feller. Here is the the introduction to Dan's white paper -
Overview
Properly delivering desktops to users is a core requirement for just about any business. If users are unable to use their desktops or applications, the business cannot function at full utilization. Every few years, just about every business undergoes a massive rollout of a new operating system, new hardware or new applications requiring a swarm of individuals to build, test and rollout the newest systems to the masses. Because of this enormous undertaking, many organizations hold off on beneficial upgrades, which oftentimes limit how fast the organization can turn to changing market demands.
There are automated tools from numerous vendors to help in the deployment of new applications and operating systems, but the question should be raised if deploying applications out to the user population is still the best approach. This type of approach incurs numerous consequences impacting the user and the business like:
- Loss of end-user device opens up significant security concerns for lost data
- Corruption of the operating system or application by malicious or inadvertent acts requires extensive troubleshooting and administrative time resulting in end-user downtime
- System upgrades are delayed due to the costs associated with the procurement of new hardware.
Instead of going down the old approach of deploying operating systems and applications to thousands of physical workstations, a dynamically provisioned virtual desktop environment will offer organizations the ability to provide their users that latest environments without the time and costs associated with a large-scale desktop rollout. Before the rollout begins, it is recommended a pilot program is launched that validates the recommended design based on business and user requirements.
This document provides a reference architecture for a XenDesktop Pilot. It is broken up into the following components:
- Virtual Desktop Requirements
- Solution Overview
- Technical Architecture
Dan put together a list of requirements for this Pilot Reference Architecture -
The pilot is the last stage of testing and validating the design and environment build before moving towards a full-scale production rollout. A small set of users will work with the production-level environment and validate the solution is functional and meets the overall virtual desktop requirements. For the architecture defined throughout this document, the following requirements are used:
- Users should be able to personalize their virtual desktop environment with application configurations, environment settings and user preferences. The personalization settings should follow the user from system-to-system.
- Users should be able to continue working within their virtual desktop even if there is a failure of a component within the environment.
- Users should be able to get access to their virtual desktop securely and over remote connections without relying on a VPN client
- A single base standard image should be used for all users within the pilot group.
- Updating the operating system with the latest security patches should only be required on a single image. Those changes should be propagated to all users' virtual desktops.
- Users should only see the applications they have been assigned as seeing all applications causes confusion.
I have broken the great content of the pdf into smaller, bite size chunks to make it more digestible within a slide format (especially the step by step tables). Before each step in the tables, I added in the reference diagram with a big arrow that points to the step within the diagram. There are a lot of slides, but the amount of content on each slide is much easier to swallow in this format IMO.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Thanks to Dan Feller for putting together an excellent whitepaper and allowing me to convert that content into this format. I hope you find this useful.
In the first Deep Dive into XenDesktop post, the embedded presentation covered the architecture of XenDesktop. This next presentation reviews the install of the the Desktop Delivery Controller and the Virtual Desktop Agent, then reviews the Management Console, Desktop Groups, and the Citrix Desktop Toolbar.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Thanks to Richard Nash on the SE team for providing much of the source material for this slide presentation.
UPDATE: You can see the second post (and presentation) in this series at this link.
The XenServer posts with technical presentations embedded (here and here) have been very popular. This next presentation dives down into the architecture and functioning of XenDesktop.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Paul Venezia, senior contributing editor of the InfoWorld Test Center, recently posted a review of Citrix XenDesktop. Paul writes "The future is bright for VDI and, thus, for XenDesktop". He goes on to say "Citrix has married VDI to its existing stable of application and desktop delivery mechanisms, and it continues to leverage the stellar ICA protocol to assist in speed, user experience, and manageability" (emphasis mine).
The review evaluates Citrix XenDesktop on five categories - Management, Performance, Scalability, Setup and Value. Overall, Paul rates XenDesktop solution as "Very Good".
Read Paul's full review here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Robin Brandl (Microsoft Technology Evangelist for Citrix) was interviewed by Joey Snow of Technet Edge during the Microsoft getVirtualnow event in Bellevue, WA.
(click to play)
The XenDesktop Setup Wizard allows an administrator to quickly create a pooled desktop group with virtual desktop VMs for their XenDesktop environment. I wanted to share more information on what the XD Setup Wizard does along with promoting it as we have had several customers unaware of the benefits of this wizard. If you are going to create a desktop group of pooled desktops then you should seriously consider using the XD Setup Wizard as it will save you a tremendous amount of time. Trust me on this as I needed to create 300 virtual desktops on VMware ESX two years ago which led to me creating this wizard. But I will save that talk for another time.
First let's cover the prerequisites and initial configuration...
Before the XenDesktop Setup Wizard is run you need to have a virtual desktop VM template and a base OS image (aka Provisioning Server vDisk). For detailed setup information on how to accomplish this please refer to the XenDesktop Getting Started Guide. This guide describes the configuration for the XD Setup Wizard as well as the other components of XenDesktop.
When you create your virtual desktop VM template you specify the VM hardware parameters for your base virtual desktop VM. When the XD Setup Wizard is run it reads this VM configuration information and then creates X number of VMs using the same virtual hardware configuration. For example if you created a VM on XenServer that has 512MB of RAM, 1 virtual CPU, 1 virtual NIC and no virtual hard drive all your new virtual desktop VMs would have that same configuration. Keep in mind that you do not need to have a nice round number in terms of RAM. You could try using something like 460MB of RAM per desktop to try and squeeze one or two extra desktop VMs per server. Of course that would only help if RAM was your bottleneck. No virtual hard drive for the VM is possible because Provisioning Server (PVS) dynamically streams the base OS image to the VM which does not require a hard drive in the VM.
However, in advanced cases you may want add a virtual hard drive to the VM that will cache information from the streamed base OS image. This virtual hard drive will be used as the write back cache for the Provisioning Server (PVS) base OS image and will typically be 1 to 2 GB. Whether or not you want a virtual hard drive depends on your network configuration and storage. By moving the write back cache off the network storage that also has the PVS base OS image you reduce the load on your network storage and you balance your network load. However having your PVS base OS image and the write back cache for each desktop on the same storage device makes the configuration easier and can result in better storage utilization. These are some of the trade offs to consider when you want to have virtual desktops deployments for thousands of users. If you need to scale your virtual desktop environment to over a thousand users email me at sunil.kumar@citrix.com.
When you create your virtual desktops you will be asked for the base VM template, the base OS image (Provisioning Server virtual disk), the base host name along with the number of virtual desktops to create, and the name of the desktop group. In our case let's use
- "CXD_VM_TEMPLATE" as the base VM template
- "CXD_IMAGE" as the base OS image
- "CXD1, CXD2, ... CXD100" as the name of the virtual desktops.
- "CXD_GROUP" as the desktop group name.
You will be asked for all this information when you run the wizard to create a desktop group. The attached video walks you through this configuration.
Now let's look at what happens when the wizard starts creating virtual desktops ...
Step 1: Connect to the hosting infrastructure and create new virtual desktops
The XD Setup Wizard connects to the XenServer resource pool via the master XenServer. It instructs XenServer to create X number of VMs. In our case we created 100 VMs. A new MAC address is created for each VM that corresponds to the virtual NIC for the VM. The XD Setup Wizard stores this newly created MAC address for each VM along with the host name specified (CXD1, CXD2, ... CXD100). The XD Setup Wizard uses the first MAC address for the VM if multiple NICs are used. However I would avoid this configuration because bad things could happen if you try it. Well actually the worst that could happen is that your virtual desktop would not boot, but because of the complexities of having multiple NICs I would avoid this configuration unless you could not live without having multiple NICs. We now have 100 VMs created with the XD Setup Wizard storing the host name for each VM along with the MAC address.
Step 2: Configure virtual desktops in Provisioning Server
The XD Setup Wizard adds a target device in Provisioning Server for each of the virtual desktops. The client name for each of the target devices is the host name. When the VM boots it replaces the host name of the base OS image with this client name. Each target device is uniquely identified by the MAC address which is why we stored the MAC address for each VM in the previous step. Each target device is then set to boot from the specified base OS image (CXD_IMAGE). In addition Provisioning Server adds each target device to active directory. You can either let the XD Setup Wizard add computers to the default location or you can specify a custom OU. We now have 100 provisioning server target (client) devices that correspond to each of the VMs created in the previous step.
Step 3: Add virtual desktops to a new Desktop Group in a Desktop Farm
The wizard now creates the new desktop group we called "CXD_GROUP". The 100 virtual desktop VMs created above are now added to this desktop group on the Desktop Delivery Controller (aka the Connection Broker or DDC). The DDC identifies each of the VMs by their AD host name, but when the VMs are added the DDC can only see the VM name and UUID (Universal Identifier). The wizard knows the host name for each VM so it informs the DDC of this automatically. Otherwise the administrator would need to manually associate each VM name / UUID with its corresponding AD host name. We now have a newly created desktop group with 100 virtual desktops.
Readying the desktop group for use
Once the desktop group is created, the Desktop Delivery Controller takes over and starts the initial setup for the desktop group. This includes starting the idle virtual desktops. These idle desktops are used to quickly connect a user to a virtual desktop because the virtual desktop is already running and only the profile needs to be applied when the user logs in. The DDC informs the XenServer resource pool to start a virtual desktop VM. When this virtual desktop is started it streams down the base OS image using the Provisioning Server component. The virtual desktop loads the Virtual Desktop Agent as part of the OS boot process which then registers with the DDCs in the XenDesktop farm. The desktop group is now ready!
In addition to the XenDesktop Setup Wizard automating all of this for you it only takes seconds per desktop. Are you now convinced to use the XenDesktop Setup Wizard as opposed to doing everything manually? You can now run the XD Setup Wizard again to either create a new desktop group or add new VMs to an existing desktop group. To modify advanced options of the desktop group such as idle pool settings you can run the Access Management Console on the DDC.
Since launching XenDesktop, one of the most common questions I have heard from XenApp customers is "Why would I use XenDesktop with my current XenApp implementation?" Well, there are a lot of reasons and this white paper helps answer them. According to the document's description:
This white paper provides 4 steps to help Citrix XenApp customers understand how and when Citrix XenDesktop can be used with Citrix XenApp to deliver virtual desktops to further reduce application and desktop computing costs and provide greater IT and user flexibility compared to traditional application and desktop management models.
The white paper explores these areas:
- Best Practice: Separate Apps and Desktop
- Step 1: Is it an app or desktop problem?
- Step 2: Which workers have this problem?
- Step 3: Identify the solution
- Step 4: Justify with Cost Analysis
Take a read and let us know what you think.
XenApp and XenDesktop: Using Application and Desktop Virtualization Together
You have probably seen the latest buzz on the street, an iPhone "running" Windows XP. This topic made big news this week as a story published by ZDNet Australia landed on the home of Digg.com.
The word "running" was loosely mentioned and that sparked a lot of controversy around visitors, but if we take a minute to explain the "phenomena", you will see there's nothing behind the curtains nor up the magician's sleeve. It's purely a high performance remote desktop (HPRD) being delivered via ICA, Citrix remoting technology protocol.
The demo mentioned above was delivered by our fellow Citrites in Australia, very similar to the one Mark Templeton showed us during his keynote early this year at the Citrix Summit.
So for those outraged with the Windows XP "running" on a "slow" processor like iPhone's, I say - you can all relax, the actual processing was done on a back-end virtual desktop and remotely delivered via Citrix XenDesktop.
Also the article mentioned above only posted a still image of the entire demo; so for those who are interested to see the full demo - here it is, the 5 minutes and 20 seconds-long XenDesktop demo "running" on an iPhone.
As part of their coverage of Citrix Synergy,Virtual Strategy Magazinerecorded a video interview with Simon Crosby, the CTO of our VMD division, at Citrix Synergy. In this interview Simon talks about our virtualization products Citrix XenDesktop, XenServer and about great partners like Marathon Technologies.
Thanks to VSM for the link back to the Synergy Underground site as well.
Voting is now closed on the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest. Here are the final vote talliesfor the best desktop virtualization video tip -
The Winner of the 16 GB Apple iPod Touch is "20 Desktops Delivered in 20 Minutes" -
The winner of the 8 GB Apple iPod Touch is "VDI Made as Easy as Pie" -
The winner of the Apple iPod Nano is "XenDesktop User Experience" -
Congratulations to the winners. All of the other finalists will receive an Apple iPod Shuffle 2 GB. If you are a winner and are attending Citrix Synergy, please let me know. I would like to recognize any winners at the Geek Speak BarCamp event on Wednesday evening.
I ask each of the winners to send me your address and contact info to citrixblogger
@citrix.com.
Thanks again for participating and voting in the XenDesktop Video Tips contest.
There is one day left to get your vote in for the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest here. As of this posting, there have been almost 300 votes. The video tip "VDI Made as EASY as Pie" by Gareth Jameshas expanded its lead a bit over the "XenDesktop User Experience" video.
VDI Made as Easy as Pie
XenDesktop User Experience Comparison
The "XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V" video is in third place.
XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V
Check out these great desktop virtualization videos and cast your vote now.
The creators of the top three video tips as voted by you will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.
You still have time to get your vote in for the XenDesktop Video Tips Contest here. As of this posting, there have been almost 200 votes. Currently "VDI Made as EASY as Pie" by Gareth James maintains a slight lead.
The creators of the top three video tips as voted by you will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.
It is time to start taking votes for the best XenDesktop Video Tip. The creators of the top three video tips will receive prizes including an Apple iPod Touch 16 G, an Apple iPod Touch 8 GB, and a Apple iPod Nano.
Here are the XenDesktop Video Tips -
XenDesktop User Experience Comparison
VDI Made as Easy as Pie
XenDesktop User Personalization with AppSense
20 Desktops Delivered in 2 Minutes
XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V
XenDesktop from Germany
Voting Now Closed
Voting will remain open until next Friday, May 16th.
I have not checked UTipU.com in a while for XenDesktop Tips. A couple of the recent tips from YouTube have been cross posted to UTipU.com in higher resolution versions.
XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper V
XenDesktop personalization with AppSense
See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.
I was just sent this XenDesktop video posted on YouTube from Germany. Much of the text on the video in in German (though Mark Templeton's comments are in English).
See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.
Brian Ehlerthas put together a XenDesktop video that shows XenDesktop with SC VMM and Hyper-V.
Brian wrote a brief blog entry regarding this desktop virtualization video, and has quite a few more covering Hyper-V server virtualization.
See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.
Suddenly alot of XenDesktop videos are appearing on Youtube. This is another video for theXenDesktop Video Tips Contest
.
See this live and in person in the XenDesktop technical sessions and live demos at Citrix Synergy. You can click here to register for Citrix Synergy.